Brynn: Hello, Everyone, and welcome back to “Issac Hopper: De-Classified.” In this episode, we will be dipping into a heartfelt story of a second chance. If you haven't listened to our previous installments of “Issac Hopper: De Classified”, I highly encourage you to pause this episode and go and listen to our first installment. Liz Region and Jackey Budier do a wonderful job of laying out all the historical background you need to enjoy this story. For today's podcasts, I'll be your host, Brynn Afton. So let's jump in….

~Music fades to a more formal voice~

Brynn:

~banging~

The Honorable Judge Edmonds

Issac Hopper was instrumental in helping numerous people from all walks of life, the evidence is seen in the pages of the Diary. Entries after entries of individual stories of second changes. Hopper did not achieve this all alone. The Honorable Judge Edmonds was a renowned prison reformer at the time and a frequent character throughout Hopper's Diary. Our story today is the story of The Honorable Judge Edmond and the supporting hand he gave those who needed it. A letter is found in the Diary on January 5th, 1847, that truly expresses the important and life-changed hand Judge Edmonds had in people's lives with deep emotions.

And The story begins with Joab Phillips.

            Joab Phillips was convicted in Wayne County on August 24th, 1846. Joab was 27 years old and had a wife and two kids back home. Joab grew up with an alcoholic father, and at the young age of 13, his father sent him to the streets to fend for himself. On his own feet, he started apprenticing at a Bakery learning the business of Baker. Unfortunately, he turned to a life of rolling nine pins and gabbing, falling into the early life of crime. In the year 1846, Joab was caught breaking into jail with the attention of Robbery; upon His confession, his wife and two children moved to Wisconsin to live with her father. Joab Phillips was not inherently bad; he simply dealt a rather unfortunate hand of cards in the game of life.

Judge Edmonds is a renowned prison reformer at the time and a frequent character throughout Hopper's Diary. Edmonds's story started in 1843 when he was elected prison inspector at the Sing Sing prison. During Edsmonss time as a prison inspector, he joined the hands of 62 others and spearheaded the founding of the Prison Association Of New York. The prison association was formed to improve prisoners' condition and discipline and aid discharged convicts. Throughout Hoppers Diary, Edmonds serves as the Judge for the first judicial district for the New York Supreme Court. He goes on to write letter after letter of good recommendations for the conceived convects from the dairy to the prison association. When Hopper falls ill, Edmonds steps in and becomes the primary writer in the Diary.

Judge Edmonds plays a role in a number of people's lives. Still, the role he played to Joab Phillips is inscribed, with elegant detail, in a beautifully written letter from Phillips's current Employer thanking him for the instrumental role he played in giving Phillips the encouragement he needed.

The letter was written by George Andrew about Joab Phillips's Character and thanking Judge Edwards for the hand he played in Phillips's fresh start. The letter is inscribed in Hopper's Diary on pages 8 to 14 of the second volume. If you would like to read the letter along with listening, it can be found on said pages located under “Diary” at Issac-hopper.org.

            The letter allows us to truly see the emotional effect that Judge Edmonds had on the people he reached out to fight for. The letter allows the story to be forever humanized with real raw emotion. 

Today we have Paul Dotty, the Curator of Special Collections & University Archives at st. Lawrence Univerity is here with us as the voice of Issac Hopper as he transcribes the letter into the Diary.

~ Sound Coming into the office~

~ As paul reads, add the sound of quill writing behind him~

Paul: My very dear sir, Last Thursday morning Mr Joab Phillips (the individual with whom you conversed in the Agents office of the Auburn State Prison, during your mission of many to that hard place) called on me with a view of getting employment. I need not say to you, that it gave me indescribable pleasure to take him by the hand and bid him an enthusiastic heart felt welcome to the busy scenes of this bright and beautiful world, from which he had been unhappily excluded for the last three years. He came to me, as I went, but a few weeks since to the Rev F W Holland full of necessity- a stranger in a strange place with the cold wind of poverty blowing hard about me and as Mr Holland helped to so I helped him before noon I received for him a lucrative situation which will afford him a comfortable and honorable livelihood.  I feel devoutly grateful to God, that in the order of this good Providence, Phillips was fortunate as to have fallen in with such a friend at a time where so greatly needed, and you may be well assured, that what you said to him and what you done for him, has given [illeg.] - a bearing - a good tendency to his present course and will to his whole future life that will cause you to be remembered with gratitude, veneration and love to the very last moment of his life. His friends, ere this, have heard of you - of your ministry of kindness and of love to their unfortunate one: your name will make many a hearthstone glow with a heat divine, for this one act of disinterested goodness. You took him where the state left him- at the moment when the servants had divested him of his “black and white,” his robes of degradation and shame, You were the first to infuse into his blank and dark soul a truly good and noble purpose -  a purpose to be a whole man -  a purpose to do right: yes you were the torch bearer, that lighted up that prostrate stricken spirit - a spirit that had cowered before scenes of cruelty and brutality which you can neither imagine or I describe.

Brynn:

This first bit of the letter really drew me to Judge Edmonds's story. You can really sense the real raw emotion behind the letter. I think it's important to note that Phillips himself is not the author of the letter to Edmonds; it is his employer George Andrew. So this high-sung phrase comes from a third party and observer who has seen firsthand the inspiration Judge Edmonds gave Phillips. As we mentioned before, Phillips was truly dealt a bad hand, and Edmonds saw him for what he could be and not what he was. This letter comes from his employer, and because of that, it speaks even higher volumes about Judge Edmonds's influence on the young man's life. He not only found employment but thrived in the work environment, so much so that his boss reached out to the Judge, who wrote him a recommendation letter. “Phillips was so fortunate to fallen in which such a good friend at a time when he so greatly needed.”

            The use of the word friend is refreshing to me. At the time, Judge Edmond is the Judge for the first judicial district for the New York Supreme Court. His name is powerful. And I really think it speaks to his character that he is referred to as a friend, a friend of Phillips; for him to treat Phillips, a convicted convent, on the same level playing field as himself speaks volumes to his character.

            The letter was intended to say thank you to  Edmonds and show how Phillips is thriving thanks to his support; however, I believe the letter did a better job, at least years in the future, as a testimonial to Judge Edmonds's character. He was not only a wildly successful Judge but cared deeply for prison reform and used his power for the better. He took his position of power, and rather than abuse it as so many have done, he used it to give more than just a helping hand to these convicted convents.

            “Yes, you were the torch bearer that lighted up that prostrate stricken spirit” Judge Edmonds did more than just help Phillips retain employment. He gave him hope for a better future and the strength to go on living a crime-free life.

Paul:

Scenes if pictured detailed - [unravelled] -  to the community would present some things that could not be looked upon in near vision something that would make the very dry bones of the dead rattle. The stones in the street writhe in deep, piercing audible agony. I hope in Gods names that you will be abundantly successful in rousing the generous sympathies of your fellow Citizens in behalf of graduates of Prison- abundantly successful in stirring up an indignation equally generous in view of the barbaric Discipline of those of this great State. And God grant that you and I both may live to see men yet coming out of the “front gate” [renewed] redeemed and regenerated, by the mild influence of laws laid down for their guide direction and observance while confined, the mild hallowing influences of kindness, persuasion and love.

It is a matter of enthusiastic congratulation to myself and those who have been similarly unfortunately situated with myself that such a truly generous spirit is John W. Edmonds- is enlisted in our behalf feels interested in our best good. It is a long loud, deep voice of encouragement, which we, and such as we can comprehend: [illeg.] holy sympathy and sacred duty which to be known must be felt- we have felt it to our unspeakable joy.

       The great length to which I have extended this epistle admonishes me to speedily close. When I began I only designed to thank you, for your kindness to Phillips and to advise you of his present prosperity, an successes in consequence of that kindness. One word more and I have done. In rooting up the Prison Discipline of this state, that has so long been a blot on humanity’s page allow me to say to you, that no system, not founded upon kindness and persuasion can succeed that will that will accomplish all that the most enlarged charity can possible contemplate. During my stay in the Auburn Institution I accumulated a great mass of thrilling incidents to illustrate this position and if perfectly agreeable to yourself, I may on some future occasion address you again and give you a brief history of the bloody administration of Doubleday and Rathburn.

Brynn:

            In the second half of the letter, Judge Edmond's character is again highly respected. However, Andrew calls attention to something not so positive: the violence inside Auborn's institution. Andrew reaches out to Judge Edmouns with the concern about the Prison discipline that had broken many more alongside Joab Phillips. During that time, the prison system saw horrific violence inside the walls. Torture devices such as shower baths were used in prisons. If you wish to find more information on the horrors beginning the closed ford of the NY prison system of the time, I highly encourage you to check out the episode “Sing Sing Prison: A Portrait of Violence” in our Issac Hooper: De Classified series produced by my college Jackie.

            Andrew specifically reached out to Judge Edmonds because of his work with the New York State Prison System and as a prison inspector. During this time, Judge Edmunds was well into his carrier:

• 1832 Member of New York State Senate for 55th-58th Legislatures
• 1836 State senator and member of the Court of Errors,
• 1836  U.S. Commissioner
• 1836 Senate president
• 1843A State Prison Inspector
• 1845 Judge of the First Judicial District
• 1847 Justice of the New York Supreme Court.

With judge Edmunds's political background in the prison system, along with his compassion and general kindness, Andrew expressed his concerns about the system to the right person.

At the end of the day, the letter is a testament of Judge Edmonds's character. His influence went far beyond the paper and into the active lives of the people he helped. And that's what the letter is to me, a love letter of second chances. To see that Judge Edemends work had an institutional change in the indicative lives of the people he helped.

After the letter was written, The Honorable Judge John W. Edmunds continued to have a fruitful carrier. In 1851, after the passing of his wife, he became a spiritualist. Spiritualism is a system of belief or religious practice based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, especially through mediums. Working alongside Dr. George T. Dexter, the two sent on to publish, in two volumes, a book about his believers titled “Spiritualism.”

Judge Edmons is a multifaced chapter with a diverse background, and I encourage all of you to continue the research into his detailed life. Today we looked into his character and how he supported the people who came to him. To influence someone's life as much as Judge Edmonds changed Joab Phills, one has to be incredibly inspiring and supportive.

One thing I love about history is when you find hidden gems such as this beautifully written letter. To hear of one accomplishment is one thing, but to hear a testimonial like this is another.  Too many, Judge Edmonds was a powerful political leader, but to Phillips, he was the light that sparked his torch and gave him hope when no one else would.

That's the end of The story of Judge Edomind, Joab Phillips, and the letter. Thank you for tuning into my episode of Issac Hopper Declassified. See ya next episode, Issiac Hopper expertise.

Today’s episode was written and produced by Brynn Afton. And thanks to Eric Williams-Bergen and Nicole Roche [Ro-Shay], and the podcasting team at St. Lawrence University. Be sure to check out the episode notes on the diary website, Isaac [dash] Hopper [dot org]. There you’ll find a source list for this episode.